Photo: Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty
“When I’m fencing, I feel like I’m doing what I was made to do,” Kat Holmes tells PEOPLE on a recent Zoom call.
“Win gold,” says Holmes, who has been hitting the weights over the last year with a virtual trainer using the app,Future. “I think when we went to Rio, me and my team, we were just so happy to be going to the Olympics that obviously we want to win and do well, but it was likejustgetting to the Olympics was the goal in many ways.”
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“But this time we want to win,” she adds. “We’ll be happy if we come away with any medal, but I don’t think we’ll be a hundred percent satisfied unless it’s gold.”
NBC will air fencingeventsbeginning July 23, and the programs will be split into the three fencing disciplines: foil, epee (Holmes' specialty), and sabre. Each discipline features its own sword-like weapon, according toUSA Fencing.
The foil is a lightweight weapon based on a centuries-old court sword and requires fencers to strike an opponent in the torso with the tip of their blade to score a point.
The sabre blade resembles the foil in weight and length, but it is primarily used as a thrusting and cutting weapon. That means fencers can score their points with the edge of their blade and the tip. Points are counted when the area from an opponent’s hip to the top of their head is struck.
“Fencing from the very beginning is technical, it’s so different,” Holmes says of what is most misunderstood about her sport. “Just the level of skill acquirement you have to get, along with that high level of athletic ability you need in other sports, I think would surprise people.”
“When you layer on that strategic layer onto it, it really is the chess of sports, you really are trying to outwit your opponent,” she continues. “There can be many different levels to every match where you come up with a solution and then your opponent solves it and you have to come up with another solution.”
But the final chapter of her fencing story won’t be written just yet.
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“We’ve seen videos when you strike a tuning fork and a wineglass explodes, everything has its own specific resonance frequency, a frequency in which it just really, really vibrates,” she explains. “I feel like I’m resonating or vibrating at my resonance frequency when I’m fencing. It’s just this innate sense that I’m my most me when I’m fencing.”
“I’m not ready to give this up yet,” Holmes adds. “I still need this.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics beginning July 23rd and the Tokyo Paralympics beginning August 24th on NBC.
source: people.com
